s should be taught with the technique of phonics instruction. For this special population of students, teachers should thus develop alternative instructional approaches that need to be customized to the learning styles and preferences of the students.
Therefore, a balanced literacy program that incorporates both phonics reading instruction and introduction to quality literature should be implemented, without overemphasizing either approach. In such a comprehensive reading program, phonics instruction can still serve a highly important function. First of all, the explicit instruction of letter-sound relationships and the learning of the spelling-sound rules in phonics instruction can be used to prepare young readers such as first graders to sound out the words and recognize them. With this ability, these readers would not have to depend on contextual clues such as pictures and the surrounding text to interpret the content (Learning First Alliance, 1998).
The beginning readers should then be introduced to appropriate texts that will provide them with ample opportunities to apply their newly-acquired skills. Essentially, these readers should be able to practice using their decoding techniques to sound out new words during their reading. Therefore, it is important that these students are given reading materials, which allow them to practice their reading strategies. On the other hand, the students should not be exposed to boring and meaningful literature that revolves around phonemes, as represented in this sentence, "Dan can fan the man" (qtd. in Learning First Alliance, 1998). Therefore, a proper balance needs to be achieved in the choice of literature that will allow students to practice their decoding strategies, while capturing their interest in reading at the same time (Learning First Alliance, 1998).
The discussion above has highlighted the importance of phonics instruction in teaching early readers to read. ...